The invention, in some embodiments, relates to methods and devices for helping to aim a firearm, especially a hand-held firearm.
To hit a desired target with a projectile fired from a firearm, an operator (shooter) must aim the barrel of the firearm at the target before discharging the firearm.
Aiming a hand-held firearm is seemingly a simple task: the operator points the barrel at a target. In reality, only experts with hundreds of hours of training are able to point to shoot and consistently hit a target at anything further than point-blank range (less than 1 meter).
For an operator of less than expert ability, the operator must use a gunsight to have a reasonable chance of hitting a target, even a static target.
Surprisingly, hitting a target at close ranges, i.e., from 1 meter to about 30 meters, using a hand-held firearm when the operator is under pressure or an urgent time limit is difficult, even with the help of the standard fixed “iron sights”.
The use of advanced combat optical gunsights (ACOG, available, for example, from Trijicon, Wixom, Mich., USA) improves the chance of hitting a target with a shoulder-held weapon such as a rifle. Some such sights are too bulky to be practical for use with handguns. Further, the requirement to focus both the operator's field of view and concentration through the gunsight during aiming means that aiming and discharging the firearm may take a relatively long time and/or the operator may become oblivious to the surroundings.
It is known to use a laser placed in parallel to the barrel of a firearm as laser gunsight. The laser beam illuminates an object with a small (1 mm diameter) spot of light. Such sights are ineffective at ranges above 4 meters due to difficulty in seeing the spot of light especially during day light, while in low-light conditions the use of such a laser gunsight reveals the location of the operator. As with an ACOG, use of a laser gunsight requires that the operator focus both field of view and concentration to see the spot of light with the concomitant disadvantages.